Serial housing units construction process

ABSTRACT

Serial housing units construction process characterized in that it substantially consists in determining the exact layout of a housing unit by means of a mobile gage; in attaching supports on the periphery of the site thus defined and in fitting, on these supports, a U-shaped straight section frame; in filling the space limited by said frame with a filling that will form the circulation area; in fitting into said frame the guide partitions whose face turned towards the inside of the housing unit will limit the surface of the outer walls to be set up; in setting up said walls by means of joined blocks arranged in superposed continuous rows; in forming continuous joints by pouring a generally cement-based compound continuously along each row of blocks by means of an appropriate distributor system; in previously fitting in appropriate places, against the inner face of said guide partitions, the mountings or frames for doors and windows and in assuring, while setting up the walls, a solid fixation between these walls and said frames or mountings; finally, in placing and fitting the roof generally fabricated close to the housing unit and in bringing said roof into correct position by means of an appropriate hoisting device.

U IKQ States Patent 11 1 1111 Demanet Oct. 22, 1974 l l SERIAL HOUSING UNITS CONSTRUCTION [57] ABSTRACT I PROCESS Serial housing units construction process character- [76] Inventor: Robert A. Demanet, rue Miserque 9, ized in that it substantially consists in determining the 6419 Marbaix-la-Tour, Belgium exact layout of a housing unit by means of a mobile gage; in attaching supports on the periphery of the site [22] 1973 thus defined and in fitting, on these supports, a U- [21] Appl. No.: 390,233 shaped straight section frame; in filling the space limited by said frame with a filling that will form the circulation area; in fitting into said frame the guide parti- [30] Forelgn Apphca'non Pnomy Dam tions whose face turned towards the inside of the Aug. 22, 1972 Belgium 7878l7 housing unit n mit the Surface f the Outer walls to be set up; in setting up said walls by means of joined [52] US. Cl. 52/747 blocks arranged i superposed continuous rows; in

It. CI. forming continuous joints pouring a generally e- [58] Field of Search 52/745, 744, 747, 741 mem based compound continuously along each row of blocks by means of an appropriate distributor system; [56] References C'ted in previously fitting in appropriate places, against the UNITED STATES PATENTS inner face of said guide partitions, the mountings or 1,762,662 6/[930 Makowslti 52/747 frames for doors and Windows and in assuring, While 1779,0117 10/1930 Makowski 52/745 setting up the walls, a solid fixation between these 3,242,549 3/1966 Boeglen 52/744 walls and said frames or mountings; finally, in placing 3.397494 3/1"68 Waring a I 52/747 and fitting the roof generally fabricated close to the D housing unit and in bringing said roof into correct po- EmmmeP-bhn Murwgh sition by means of an appropriate hoisting device. Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Bacon 8; Thomas 6 Claims, 18 Drawing Figures l0 ll 5CL 59 t PAKNIEU 9U 22 74 MISUS- L LWMW W PAFENIEB nmzzmm SIEEI u; 5

SERIAL HOUSING UNITS CONSTRUCTION PROCESS This invention concerns the serial construction of single dual or multiple housing units, more specifically with regard to the economic system in developing countries or regions. These housing units are generally based on simple schemes in which quick and economic construction means may be used.

Various processes and materials have already been proposed when construction on several hundreds and even several thousands of housing units located within one specific area was started simultaneously.

Generally speaking, the schemes performed are open to criticism since they require, in particular for the basic structure, the intervention of specialized labour frequently unavailable on the spot.

The result is that the basic structures often show defects and obvious flaws while, in addition, the production rhythm remains relatively slow to the detriment of the schemes overall economy.

The essential purpose of the process of this invention resides in arranging a sequence of steps for constructing a basic structure, which steps can be performed by nonspecialized local labor without prejudice to the accuracy of the work performed.

Another purpose of the invention consists in applying simple means that allow acceleration of the basic structure building rhythm, also without prejudice to the work performed and, in particular, with regard to the perpendicularity and the alignment of both supporting walls and partitions.

Still another purpose of the process according to the invention consists in applying a technique such that, within the limits of a scheme covering even a considerable number of housing units, the successive phases may apply simultaneously to a multitude of houses, so that while one house is being built, the components used for construction phases already performed may be used to perform these same phases in other units within the scheme, with the entire operation organized as a continuous rotation preventing systematically any lengthy intervals in equipment use as well as any slowdown or stopping in the work of the teams participating in construction.

Another purpose of the invention concerns extremely quick performance to an extent that for any given scheme covering, for instance, several hundreds or even several thousands housing units, the savings obtained for basic structures may be from 50 to 65% as compared to performances based on the quickest and most economic processes proposed to this day; this comparison must be conducted, of course, with housing units of the same conditioning and offering the same finishing level.

These various purposes will be achieved by applyin the process according to the invention, which is essentially characterized in that it basically consists in determining the accurate site of a housing unit by using a mobile gage; in attaching supports on the periphery of the site thus defined and in fitting, on these supports,

a U-shaped straight section frame; in filling the space.

limited by said frame with a filling that will form the enclosure; in fitting into said frame the guide partitions whose face turned towards the inside of the housing unit will limit the surface of the outer walls to be set up; in setting up said walls by means of joined blocks arranged in superposed continuous rows; in forming continuous joints by pouring a generally cement-based compound continuously along each row of blocks be means of an appropriate distributor system; in previously fitting in appropriate places, against the inside face of said guide partitions, the mountings or frames for the doors and windows and in assuring, while setting up the walls, a solid fixation between these walls and said frames or mountings; finally, in placing and fitting the roof generally fabricated close to thehousing unit and in bringing said roof in correct position by means of an appropriate hoisting device.

These essential phases of the process according to the invention may, of course, be supplemented by all subsidiary phases or jobs in proportion with the type of housing unit and the number of housing units provided for by the scheme.

A first preparatory phase will consist in fitting, immediately after having placed the gage on the ground to limit the exact site of the unit, along the limits determined by said gage, hoop or brace-shaped supports sunk into the ground and firmly immobilized on a level with said reversed U-shaped; section frame. This latter could, as for that, receive a beneficial addition through separate, respectively welded partitions so as to increase their strength and facilitate the subsequent fitting of said guide partitions.

The blocks used will be preferably selected in a shape, the hollows of which have a bottom and the two abutment faces of which are bordered by projecting edges so that such blocks may be installed at a very quick rhythm without any detriment to the vertical alignment and the correctness of the masonry considering that said blocks are systematically and automatically guided in two orthogonal directions, respectively by the guide partition and by the adjacent block.

For additional safety, these guide partitions will also be interlocked at their upper section by means of a reversed U-shaped device covering the top sections of said guide partions while significantly increasing their strength.

With regard to preparing frames or mountings for doors and windows, these devices will simply be clasped in their appropriate places to the inner face of the guide partitions and in the manner of simple frames attached to a wall.

While the walls are being set up, these frames or mountings will be automatically integrated into the masonry with which they may be definitely interlocked by any appropriate and known anchoring means.

The roof may be either a saddle roof or a selfsupporting box type roof. The construction, the installation in correct position and the fitting of this roof to the masonry offer no specific problem.

We note that by this process, respectively by said means, the entire basic structure may be completely finished without any specialized'labour, provided that the various materials used for applying this process will be duly identified, marked, numbered in such a manner that the various phases of the process are facilitated, in particular where serial'work is involved.

We understand, of course, that this process may be used in essentially variable forms as a function of the design of the housing units to be built, of local requirements' and of the finishing job requested.

Consequently, we hereinafter describe simply as an example and without intending any limitation, a process by referring to the drawings hereto-attached in which:

FIGS. 1 to 6 show a schematic view of the various layout phases of a structure according to the invention;

FIG. 7 shows an enlarged scale section taken on line VII-VII of FIG.

FIG. 8 shows a vertical projection view of a guide partition according to the invention;

FIG. 9 shows a top view of the layout of FIG. 8;

FIGS. l0, l1 and 12 respectively show an enlarged scale view taken on lines XX, XIXI and XIIXII of FIG. 8;

FIG. 13 shows a face view of a structure built according to the invention;

FIG. 14 shows a top view of the layout of FIG. 12;

FIG. 15 shows an enlarged scale section taken on line XV-XV of FIG. 13;

FIG. 16 is similar to FIG. 15, but with the guide components removed;

FIG. 17 shows a transverse section of masonry;

FIG. 18 shows a variant of the part shown at F18 on FIG. 15.

As schematically shown by FIGS. 1 to 16, the process according to the invention consists in setting up on the ground, in a previously determined place, a gage 1 with marking battens 1', measuring lines 1" and a planchette 1" for the purpose of determining the site of the structure to be built (FIGS. 1 and 2). Along the outer limits of said measuring line 1" we shall sink hoopor brace-shaped supports 2 into the ground with the top faces 3 of these supports arranged in one plane and forming a joint seat for the U-shaped components 4 that are part of a frame which accurately surrounds the outer limits of said gage 1. With these U-shaped components are interlinked additional guide plates 5-6. These components are contiguous to the small foundation walls 7 and the space limited by the top face of these and by the corresponding section of the guide plates 6 will be filled with a slab 8 or with any other filling that may be used as the floor, respectively the enclosed area inside the housing unit.

In a vertical position as compared to said guide plate 6 and to the adjacent wing 9 of the U-shaped component 4 will be set up a guide panel 10 made of wood, metal, plastic or any other compound material serving the purpose involved; this panel will be strengthened by stiffening ribs 11 that extend all over or over part of the length of said panels 10. These panels with their stiffening ribs 11 will be firmly wedged by means of wedges 12. These wedges could, in specific cases, be advantageously replaced by bars made of metal or other materials fulfilling the same function. This wedging is such that panel 10 will be firmly immobilized in such a manner that its face 13 turned towards the inside of the housing unit will find itself in the plane subsequently to be defined by the masonry itself. At the top, the various component parts of panel 10 with its stiffening ribs 11 will be consolidated by a reverse U-shaped cap 14 (FIG. 11 of which wing 15 directed towards the inside of the housing unit will fit into a rabbet 16 formed in l in view of taking the earthwork into account. In this design, guide plate 5 will become superfluous and the U- shaped component 4 will rest on section 3' that forms the extension of the upper partition 3 of said component 2.

In this execution, said U-shaped component 4 will be interlinked with the concrete slab 8 by means of a metal screw 40 passing through leg 9 of the U-shaped component 4, through guide plate 4 and then screwing into a small mass 41 sunk into the concrete and fitted with interior threading. In this manner, the lateral legs of the hoopor brace-shaped supports 2 may bear on solid ground.

As schematically shown by FIGS. 13 and 14, guide panels 10 will be installed at the place of the various walls to be built; adequate openings, e.g., those corresponding to the doors as shown at 17 will be provided for in order to permit workers to walk in and out and bring in the blocks necessary for setting up the masonry. The door frames 18 and window frames 19 will be fitted onto the corresponding part of the guide partition by any appropriate means; this fixation is but temporary since the mountings or frames will have to be anchored into the masonry. This masonry will be placed, in accordance with the invention, under exceptionally simple and economic conditions. As a matter of fact, in a preferred construction design, we use special blocks as shown by FIG. 17. These blocks 20 consist of a prismatic body 21 with two blind hollows 22-23; their contiguous faces 24-25 are so designed as to show two bordering edges 2627 and 28-29.

In accordance with the invention, the masonry will be set up by means of such blocks, which will be simply placed contiguously, one after another, against a guide partition 10 on a first layer of mortar by means of a distributor system (well known in itself). After a first row of such blocks has been placed, their top face will be coated in the same manner by a second layer of mortar. These blocks 20 will, of course, be installed with their bottom pointing upwards so as to present a full surface when the mortar is applied. After this application, we proceed with placing a second row of blocks still guided both by a guide panel and by the block below.

Such block placing operations over a full partition length, alternating with mortar applying operations by means of a distributor will permit achieving extremely quick construction rhythms together with an extremely simple improvement where the finished masonry quality is concerned; all of this will result in considerable savings, as detailed hereabove, with regard to setting up the entire basic structure of a housing unit.

In view of efficiently capping the walls built in this manner we shall fit to the inner face of the upper section of the walls a shuttering partition 30 (FIG. 15) by ussing braces 31-32 and clamping nuts, respectively 33-34 and 35-36.

Into the space thus defined will be cast a beam 37 to the top part of which will be fitted by means of anchoring 38 a plank 39 subsequently to be used for fastening the roof.

After the wall has thus been built, we only have to remove all components that participated in the positive guiding of the construction blocks. For finishing work will be applied by conventional means to the extent of the nature and design provided for by the scheme.

We note that during the application of successive mortar layers onto the various rows of blocks, said relatively liquid mortar will enter the spaces separating adjacent blocks while covering, at the same time, the surfaces defined by the plane top faces of the blocks with a uniform and relatively thin layer of mortar.

We may, of course, replace the components detailed here-above by equivalent components or components of equivalent function duly adjusted to each specific type of housing unit to be built without departing from the principles, of this invention. This invention concerns both the process and the structures as well as the components especially conditioned for the purpose of practicing said process.

Various changes may, of course, be made by the professional expert on the devices and processes described here-above exclusively as nonlimiting examples and without departing from the principles of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. Serial housing units construction process characterized in that it substantially consists in determining the exact layout of a housing unit by means of a mobile gage; in attaching supports on the periphery of the site thus defined and in fitting, on these supports, a U- shaped straight section frame; in filling the space limited by said frame with a filling that will form the circulation area; in fitting into said frame the guide partitions whose face turned towards the inside of the housing unit will limit the surface of the outer walls to be set up; in setting up said walls by means of joined blocks arranged in superposed continuous rows; in forming continuous joints by pouring a generally cement-based compound continuously along each row of blocks by means of an appropriate distributor system; in previously fitting in appropriate places, against the inner face of said guide partitions, the mountings or frames for doors and windows and in assuring, while setting up the walls, a solid fixation between these walls and said frames or mountings; finally, in placing and fitting the roof generally fabricated close to the housing unit and in bringing said roof into correct position by means of an appropriate hoisting device.

2. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that the component parts of a guide partition will be interlinked through the fact that their top section will be capped by a reversed U-shaped component, one wing of which will be lodged in a corresponding hollow in the inner face of said guide components so as to assure continuity between the inner faces of the components thus opposed.

3. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that the U-shaped framing components intended for the fixation of the lower section of the guide panels are supplemented by separate plates welded at their two parallel legs in such a manner as to assure both great strength for said framing components and increased bearing safety for the clamping wedges of the guide panels.

4. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that the door frames and the window frames are provisionally fitted in suitable places to the inner face of the guide panels while said mountings and frames are equipped with anchoring devices to be fitted into the masonry in the course of its construction.

5. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that the blocks used are of prismatic design with two blind hollows and abutment faces bordered by edges along two parallel sides, these blocks being installed one after another in such a manner as to be arranged in a joined design with their full face pointing upwards until one complete row of blocks is achieved, while the mortar will then be continuously applied to the top face of said row and conditioned in such a manner as to simultaneously penetrate into the spaces between contiguous blocks.

6. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that concurrently with the availability of the equipment intended for constructing a housing unit, this equipment will be used for constructing another unit and so on, thus establishing a continuous rolling work system and preventing inactivity of both workers and equipment to 

1. Serial housing units construction process characterized in that it substantially consists in determining the exact layout of a housing unit by means of a mobile gage; in attaching supports on the periphery of the site thus defined and in fitting, on these supports, a U-shaped straight section frame; in filling the space limited by said frame with a filling that will form the circulation area; in fitting into said frame the guide partitions whose face turned towards the inside of the housing unit will limit the surface of the outer walls to be set up; in setting up said walls by means of joined blocks arranged in superposed continuous rows; in forming continuous joints by pouring a generally cement-based compound continuously along each row of blocks by means of an appropriate distributor system; in previously fitting in appropriate places, against the inner face of said guide partitions, the mountings or frames for doors and windows and in assuring, while setting up the walls, a solid fixation between these walls and said frames or mountings; finally, in placing and fitting the roof generally fabricated close to the housing unit and in bringing said roof into correct position by means of an appropriate hoisting device.
 2. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that the component parts of a guide partition will be interlinked through the fact that their top section will be capped by a reversed U-shaped component, one wing of which will be lodged in a corresponding hollow in the inner face of said guide components so as to assure continuity between the inner faces of the components thus opposed.
 3. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that the U-shaped framing components intended for the fixation of the lower section of the guide panels are supplemented by separate plates welded at their two parallel legs in such a manner as to assure both great strength for said framing components and increased bearing safety for the clamping wedges of the guide panels.
 4. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that the door frames and the window frames are provisionally fitted in suitable places to the inner face of the guide panels while said mountings and frames are equipped with anchoring devices to be fitted into the masonry in the course of its construction.
 5. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that the blocks used are of prismatic design with two blind hollows and abutment faces bordered by edges along two parallel sides, these blocks being installed one after another in such a manner as to be arranged in a joined design with their full face pointing upwards until one complete row of blocks is achieved, while the mortar will then be continuously applied to the top face of said row and conditioned in such a manner as to simultaneously penetrate into the spaces between contiguous blocks.
 6. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that concurrently with the availability of the equipment intended for constructing a housing unit, this equipment will be used for constructing another unit and so on, thus establishing a continuous rolling work system and preventing inactivity of both workers and equipment to a maximum extent. 